The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1887-02-17
Natural gas is not sold by the cubic foot

~ aeul eel Seto Is HOt SOlu ny Tile CuDlC IOOC
as is coal gas, but for domestic consump
ton certain fixed monthly rate is paid
The charge for heating stoves is So, so per
month. open CRATES $500, For manufac-
turing purposes the charge is according to
the amount of work performed. For pud-
ding furnaces, $1,00 per ton, of product
for glass furnaces the gas costs about $685.
90 per ton month. You may waste OF
economic as you please, it makes no diff
ference. the price is the same. Natural
gas is the ideal fuel. 1t needs no care,
conveys itself, leaves no ashes, has high
heating power, is readily extinguished and
lighted. In its domestic use many devices
are employed to give it an attractive form;
one of the most common is to fill the fire.
place with broken brick bats which when
the gas is lighted, glow like a bed of red
hot Goals. Another device is to fill the
fireplace with iron logs in imitation of the
old fashioned fireplace. In others, fantas-
tic forms are represented in the fire. The
kettle filled with water which is frequently
hung over the fireplace to supply the room
with moisture reminds one of the old colo
NAL days.
One Of the results Of the introduction of
natural gas into the glass making indus
try is that America will not have to i'm
port her best plate glass from Europe any
longer. BY the use of natural gas we are
enabled to make glass equal to the best
French article. It has also been found
that the coke or carbon deposit from nat
ural gas makes better carbon points, such
as are used in electric light than is posi-
bic to make by any other process. That
natural gas stock is a profitable investment
is shown from the fact that the Philadel-
phia Natural Gas Company declared its
l4th monthly dividend of per cent Dec
Sth. The immense pressure under which
the gas is held under ground is shown by
the following incident. The Bode Com
pany, have a well near Pittsburg 1900 feet
deep. 1t was cased 700 feet with 81 inch
pipe and inside was 1900 feet 4 inches ca.
sing. The company's men were engaged
in fixing huge iron bars across the top of
the casing for the purpose of anchoring it
and shutting in the well. An outsider
thinking that the weight of the casing
would keep the gas in, while the men
were away, stole up, closed the valve and
fed. The gas rising until the packer slip
ped, the column of pipe swaying with the
weight broke off and fell to the ground =
Then the pipes began to come and as soon
as so or 80 feet came above the ground it
would break off and fall through the der
rick to the ground. Still the pipe kept
coming until the ground looked like the
yard of a pipe factory and the derrick was
entirely demolished
One of the most beautiful and striking
phenomena in connection with the burning
of the natural gas at the escape pumps of
the wells are the sO-called ''gas cOmets.'
Mr. Thomas Fl. Roberts describes them,
They are peculiar reflections in the sky
over burning gas wells, and are caused in
some way by the focusing of the rays of
light on certain of the, probably, icy par
ticles suspended or floating III the high
er atmosphere. They never reach down
to the source of their origin. Their ap-
pearance is much the same as that of
comet only there is no necleus, neither
does the tail expand in width. One of
them, vertical over gas well from the hori-
zon to its base was about Is degrees and
from the point of observation the distance
to the well wasll5a miles. The height ind-
Gated by this angle would be about four
miles. From the base to the top of the
bar of light subtended a further angle
of eight degrees waich would Indicate
lenght for the comet of about q miles,
Its upper extremity was therefore about
81 miles from the earth's surface.
The real diameter of natural gas flame
whose projection is thus thrown upward
into the sky is not often more than Is to
80 feet and in vertical length from 80 to
70 feet II. N. W.